Fire and Ice, Explication

The world could possibly end in two ways. The author, if he had to perish twice would like to try both.

Fire is desire and I think ice is equated to hate. I don't think he necessarily thinks one has a greater destructive power than the other, but that his first choice would be fire/desire. This is because I think that the fire represents love. Both fire/desire and ice/hate can be extremes of emotions and the elements. Do you find it interesting that his last name is Frost?

I think the poem is about both, and human relationships like fire and ice have the power to and can be equally effective at destroying.

It s hard to pick just one line as the most important, but I guess it would have to be "from what I've tasted of desire". I think that this line speaks of the love he has had and the love of mankind and humanity. I think desire can be both good and bad. The poet uses the term in a way to say that desire has ended it all and gone so far so that there is no longer anymore, maybe it has all burnt to leave nothing but ashes? .My final thoughts on the poem are the following; this is a poem that speaks of both relationships and ending the world. The poem relates many opposites, fire and ice, desire and hate, an all consuming buring passion and a bitter cold hate. When one has experienced the "fire" only ash is left, all is gone, but if one where to experience the "ice" it would destroy but not end it all. With the ice everything in frozen and destroyed but not truly gone.

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...Yaliza Burgos
Dr. Clerkin
HUM 300
9/1/2013
Like a piece of ice on a hot stove
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the poem must ride on its own melting. - Robert Frost.
On March 26, 1874, San Francisco California, the American poet Robert Frost was born. Even though Frost was born in American soil, he was universally identified with his European roots back in New England. Frost did not move to New England until after the death of his father in 1885 when his mother resettled the family to Lawrence, Massachusetts. There, Frost attended Lawrence High School where he was the co-valedictorian with his eventual wife, Elinor.1
After publishing a few poems in 1894 and between the years of 1899 and 1912 as well as working as a teacher in New Hampshire; in 1912 he moved his family to England in order to concentrate with his writing. While in England, he published his first book of poems, A Boy's Will, in 1913 and was enthusiastically reviewed by the American modernist poet Ezra Pound (1885–1978), who soon made his acquaintance. In 1914, North of Boston, his second book, was published; in 1915, when Frost returned to the United States, North of Boston was published there and became a major success, bringing him immediate fame.1
After mayor of Frost work was publishing, he stared his career as a writer and teacher. Holding jobs at several major universities, Frost rapidly became known as one of the most important...

...﻿Brainstorming:
Fire= Desire
Ice= Hate
Frost represents the world ending through feelings that humans have, not through natural disasters.
Talk about how desire covers your true appreciation for life itself
Hate makes the whole community negative and is a toxic environment.
SOAPSTone:
Subject: Robert Frost is comparing fire and ice to desire and hate.
Occasion: He is comparing desire and hate to express how the world is going to eventually end.
Audience: Anyone older than, and including younger adults because the subject matter is not really appropriate for young children.
Purpose: To show how peoples negative emotions and actions are very much so affecting the real world, and to explain that natural disasters may be able to physically destroy the world, but that the way the human race behaves can emotionally destroy it as well.
Speaker: Robert Frost is the speaker because this poem is from his perspective and opinion.
Tone: This poem has a very matter-of-fact, negative tone to it being that the actions he is describing are negative as well.
“Fire and Ice” Outline
Paragraph 1- Thesis Statement: Fire and ice are used to express and emphasize Robert’s feelings on how the world will eventually end. In his poem he compares fire to desire, and ice to hate.
Paragraph 2- Supporting Detail 1: In the world...

...﻿Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
“Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost is a beautifully written poem that was published in late 1920. The poem brings up the reoccurring question of the fate of our world, whether we will be destroyed by ice or fire. This argument is still currently being discussed, making the poem timeless with both to topic and its use of rhyme.
This poem can be interpreted in two distinct ways. The author may be referring to the world ending in ice or fire as literal terms, or Frost may be using them as metaphors to say that human’s will cause the end of the world through desire (fire) and hatred (ice). Fire can symbolize many things, such as war, anger, lust, desire, or global warming; likewise ice can embody hatred, coldness, a lack of compassion, timelessness, or an ice age.
Starting with the first two lines, Some say the world will end in fire/Some say in ice, the author instantly draws a line between the two groups and their beliefs. Also, his use of “some say” induces the thought that a large amount of people have considered this topic, and is a form of repetition and alliteration. This repetition, or parallelism, is used to emphasize the fact that there are two equal beliefs for how the world will end.
Within the third line of the poem, Robert...

...Critical Analysis of "Fire and Ice"
One said, "Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words." Four time Pulitzer Prize winning American poet, teacher, and lecturer, Robert Frost quoted this. Frost was born in 1874 and died in January of 1963. He lived in New England for practically his whole life, only moving to England for a short time to pursue his writing career in which he wrote many popular and oft-quoted poems. In his poem, "Fire and Ice", Frost uses imagery, diction and metaphors to create the themes of desire and hate, nature and its meaning, and opposites.
Tom Hanson figures that the speaker is in first person in "Fire and Ice". (Hanson 27) The speaker simply expresses an opinion instead of telling a story or receiving an insight. Sabine Sautter Leger states that the speaker insists that "from what I've tasted of desire," fire is more likely a deadly instrument. (Leger 113) "At least a fiery end might allow one to derive a certain pleasure or satisfaction from the passion that leads to our ultimate desire." (113) On the other hand, hatred only leads to destruction too quickly. (113) Yet the speakers wisdom is great enough for he knows that "for destruction ice/ is also great/ and would suffice." (113)
There is no specific audience in Frost's poem. The general topic is familiar to the readers of the...

...its readers differently. In Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice,” it is both a lyric and didactic poem. There are several meanings that can be argued in “Fire and Ice.” Is Frost’s “Fire and Ice” about the world ending or a past love that has ended?
In the first two lines, Frost writes, “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.” The first thought that comes to mind when reading these two lines is that the poem is about the debate on how the world will one day end. Christians believe that the world is going to end in fire as the Bible says. Second Peter chapter three, verse twelve declares, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.” People not of the Christian faith believe that the world is going to end, just not in fire. The Earth once experienced an ice age, and scientists have deemed it true that this is how the Earth will end once again. A reader may not interpret the first two lines to be related to a past relationship in any way. Consequently, the context will probably have a literal meaning until reading further into the poem.
The third and fourth lines however may cause the reader to begin questioning the meaning...

...Fire and Ice written by Robert Frost uses three figures of speech. It uses alliteration, anaphora, and paradox. Alliteration is the use of the same consonant at the beginning of each stressed syllable in a line of verse. Alliteration is used in the lines “Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice (Frost, lines 1 and 2)”, and “I hold with those who favor fire (Frost, line 4).” Alliteration is used by repetition of "S" in some and say. It is used in the "H" in hold and the "H" sound in “who”. Alliteration is also used in favor fire.
Anaphora uses a pronoun or similar word instead of repeating a word used earlier. Anaphora is in "Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice (Frost, lines 1 and 2)". It is used with "some say" when it is said twice.
A paradox is a statement that contradicts itself. The paradox in Fire and Ice is "But if it had to perish twice (Frost, line 5)". It is a paradox because nothing can die twice. Another paradox, and also an understatement, would be, “To know that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice (Frost, lines 7, 8, and 9).” It is a paradox because it says that ice is very destructible then goes on to say it would only suffice.
Fire and Ice is a lyric poem that expresses the thoughts and feelings of the poet....

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The poems “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost and “Erosion” by EJ Pratt shows contrast they have with one another. At first glance we see it immediately with the rhyme schemes and meter of the poems. In his career as a poet, Robert Frost, wrote poems with traditional meters, while Frost wrote "Fire and Ice" in iambic tetrameter (in lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) and iambic di-meter (in lines 2, 8, and 9). However, this is not the case for Erosion though, as EJ Pratt believed that “rhyme and meter do not make a poem” as he wrote Erosion in stable meter; writing it in iambic tetrameter.
Although both poems revolve around the relations between nature and humanity, they exhibit some differences throughout each poem. “Erosion” shows us how the sea took a thousand years to erode a cliff while a tempest at sea took an hour to make the same erosions carve out on a woman’s face because of her sorrow after realizing her husband’s life was taken away by the tempest at sea. Contrarily, Fire and Ice outlines the fate of the world and mankind itself, reflecting if it is more likely to be destroyed by fire or ice, with Frost concluding to us that the world could end in both fire and ice. This can also be seen because of the fact that Frost wrote this after WW1 and making reference to back in the day where the atomic bomb destroyed and killed thousands...

...Poetry Analysis
My two poems for my poetry analysis are “Fire and Ice” and “Let me not to the marriage of true minds”. The poems are written in two different time periods by unlike authors. Having two dissimilar poems help show how the authors used different techniques to connect with their audience. The author’s use of style, form, sound, and literary techniques help show their different techniques.
“Fire and Ice” was written by Robert Frost in 1923. This was the modern time period. The sound of the poem has an end rhyme which makes it a lyric. Robert Frost uses sarcasm, paradox, personification and rhyming. He puts in his own opinion about what he thinks is going to happen when the end of the world comes. His use of tone makes it seem that fire or ice is the only options for the world to end. This has an impact in history today because scientists have different beliefs on how the world will end. Some believe it will end from the earth’s fiery core while others believe it will be from an upcoming ice age (Vincent). Robert Frost used fire and ice as symbols of desire and hate. So he believes that the world can end both ways.
“Let me not to the marriage of minds” was written by Shakespeare during the Renaissance period. The poem has a rhyme scheme. It’s also written in different sonnets. The poem talks about true love and how it should be....